10 Cool Used Japanese Cars For Under £10,000

Be it growing up watching Colin McRae drive the wheels off Subaru Imprezas, ogling over Nissan Skyline GT-Rs on Gran Turismo or watching Fast & Furious religiously, it seems everyone wants something from Japan these days.

That means pretty much all the stuff you want is now obscenely expensive. Gone are the days of the cheap yet interesting JDM car. Or are they?

Well, with £10,000 as our budget, we’ve spent some time in the classifieds to see what we can pick up. Here are 10, some taking up all of that cash – and others you could probably pick two or three of up.

Suzuki Swift Sport

Cheap hot hatches are another thing the world is slowly losing, but the Suzuki Swift Sport looks like an outlier to the trend of pocket rockets rising in value.

First-generation examples of the supermini can be had for as little as £1000, with the very best examples around £4000. For that, you’re getting a one-tonne car with a free-revving, 123bhp 1.6-litre engine. Trust me, it’s a tantalising recipe.

The one you want though is the second-generation Sport. It used the same M16A engine with a little more power, a sixth gear and more equipment. You can pick these up from around £4000 for rattier versions up towards £8000 for really nice ones.

Even the third-generation, turbocharged car can be had within a £10k budget if you’re eagle-eyed on the classifieds.

Toyota GT86

A really good Toyota GT86 isn’t a car you’re going to find for cheap, sadly. It seems values have bottomed out now – really tidy pre-facelift cars hover around £13-15k, with facelift examples even coming close to £20,000.

However, if you want the cheapest of cheap GT86s, there’s some to be had under £10,000. These examples will be high mileage and likely require a bit of love, but as a platform to work from, it could make for a great project car.

A 200bhp, naturally-aspirated, rear-driven and manual car is not something we’re going to see in plentiful supply going forward. Expect prices to only go one way.

GD Subaru Impreza WRX

If you’re anything like us, blue Subaru Imprezas rally cars doing blue Subaru Impreza rally things was a core memory in our path to becoming petrolheads. Unfortunately, finding any sort of WRX STI for under £10,000 these days is not an easy task. Even if you do, you probably don’t want it.

So, we look to the WRX for our source of reasonably quick Imprezas in 2025. The good news is supply of them is still quite plentiful at that price point, and our pick would be a GD Hawkeye.

These still came with the EJ25 used as the base in the STI, and with a respectable 215bhp. Some UK-specific variants had more power from the official importer, but these are usually above a £10,000 budget.

Honda Beat

Is there anything cooler than a Kei car, really? Though tiny in stature, they’re absolutely giant in character and charisma.

We’re not sure there’s an argument against the Honda Beat being one of the coolest of its kind. Mid-engined? Check. Rear-drive? Check. Manual? Check. Convertible? Check. Zebra print seats? CHECK.

Admittedly, they’re seldom for sale in the UK these days so you may have to look at importing one. As we’re typing this, there’s one for sale at 3.3 Freddos under £9k. Just keep an eye out for rot on cars that have spent a long time on our shores.

Lexus IS200

We’ll admit, the Lexus IS200 isn’t really *that* cool in its standard form, but it does have a few things going for it. Key is the 1JZ engine, something you’ll struggle to find in anything properly cool for our budget, and there’s a decent number of manuals out there.

You can pick a well-used manual up for around £4500 with prices for nicer ones almost doubling that. Go in with our full budget and that gives you some room for modifications to actually make it properly cool, or better yet, import a Toyota Altezza.

Toyota Vellfire

Cool doesn’t have to mean high performance or outright silly. See the Toyota Vellfire – a case study showing that MPVs don’t have to be boring.

The Vellfire is the Alphard’s ‘sportier’ sibling. That’s to say, it wears angrier bodywork. Yet inside, there’s room for seven to sit in plenty of comfort and enjoy the soundtrack of a 2.4-litre V6. Put a cat-back exhaust on one and thank us later.

There are plenty of circa-2010 examples available at £10,000. You could swap this wholesale for the Nissan Elgrand and we’d have no complaints, either.

Nissan 350Z

It’s a wonder that Nissan 350Z prices are still as low as they are, given how expensive anything else interesting the manufacturer has made will cost you these days.

Perhaps it's the high tax the 3.5-litre VQ35 commands, or the fact the 370Z remained on sale for so long. Regardless, with £10,000, you can find a really tidy 350Z coupe or a less-sought Roadster with change to spare. We’re not sure that’ll stay that way forever, so you may want to tickle that particular fancy sooner than later.

Mitsubishi Pajero Mini

Aha, you opened this list expecting to see a Suzuki Jimny somewhere, didn’t you? You were almost correct but, while looking through some for inspiration, we had a different brainwave.

Introduced in 1994 and built right through to 2012, the Mitsubishi Pajero Mini wasn’t really a Pajero (or Shogun to us in the UK) at all – rather, it was a Minica in cosplay. Don’t let that fool you though, it still had a proper 4WD system (2WD cars exist but are rare) drawing power from its 660cc Kei-spec engine.

As we’re writing, there are two for sale in the UK right now – both around £7000. This might be another one to look at imports to cast your net wider.

Mazda RX-8

Have you really lived through your 20s if you haven’t contemplated chancing your financial stability on running a Mazda RX-8?

You aren’t going to find an RX-7 for under £10,000, so your route to rotary ownership at this price is going to have to be an RX-8. We’ve all heard the horror stories of apex seals, but finding one with a recent engine rebuild or accepting your wallet’s fate will reward you with one of the sweetest Japanese sports cars of the ‘00s.

Our budget will get you practically any example of the RX-8 on sale, bar the absolute lowest mileage and rare spec examples. We’d look towards later facelift, lower-mileage cars for a bit of peace of mind but it’s crucial to check the service history of whatever you choose.

Daihatsu Mira Avanzato TR-XX

No, this is not your nan’s Perodua Kelisa. The Daihatsu Mira Avanzato TR-XX is a name you’re unlikely familiar with unless you’re really into Gran Turismo deep cuts, but it’s another example of weird, cool Kei cars.

Under its tiny bonnet was the usual regulation-limited 660cc engine with 63bhp, though that doesn’t tell you the full story. That had an 8500rpm redline, and would be sent to an all-wheel drive system, good for a sub-9 second 0-62mph time.

Fast? Absolutely not. But that’s no small feat, given how err, small the car is. It’ll feel hilarious, anyway. There's one for sale in the UK as we're writing this, so it may be another to import. That or any similar, tiny 4x4 sporty Kei car will do.